'Narnia' release fuels sales push by Christian retailers

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — With Friday's release of the film version of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," the marketing push to promote the sale of Narnia books and other related merchandise is reaching a crescendo — and nowhere more so than in Christian retail stores.

Christian allusions can be found throughout the best-selling fantasy novel, which follows the adventures of four young siblings during World War II who discover a world of fauns, centaurs, unicorns and talking animals inside an armoire.

The heroic lion Aslan, a symbol of Jesus Christ, battles the White Witch, who is seen by some to represent a servant of Satan if not the devil himself. The residents of Narnia refer to a human boy as "a Son of Adam" and to a girl as "a Daughter of Eve."

The movie, which is expected to be a hit, already has boosted sales of the seven-title Narnia series published by HarperCollins.

While the publishing company is distributing the C.S. Lewis books and other related merchandise to general retailers, its Zondervan division, a Grand Rapids-based publisher of Bibles and other religious books, is responsible for getting Narnia items into Christian bookstores and gift shops.

Large, elaborate in-store displays at many stores depict wardrobes, lions, lampposts, knights and other Narnia items and characters. Besides the original books, Christian retailers are stocking their shelves with a variety of movie tie-in products, from music CDs to figurines.

Doug Lockhart, Zondervan's president and chief executive officer, said sales at Christian stores are going through the roof, though he declined to release figures.

"It has been a very stable franchise, but with the exposure that has been associated with this upcoming movie release, the sales have taken a dramatic increase, multiple times," Lockhart said.

Nancy Guthrie, a spokeswoman for CBA International, a Colorado Springs-based trade association that represents about 2,300 Christian retailers, agreed the movie has been having a positive effect on store sales of an already popular and steadily selling book series.

"It's giving them the opportunity to not only offer new books about C.S. Lewis and Narnia but certainly to feature these classic children's books, as well as, really, the broad list of titles available by C.S. Lewis."

Rhonda Barnett, owner of the Blessings to You shop in Three Rivers, said Thursday that few of her customers had been buying the Narnia books until recently.